BENDULA ANIL KUMAR

In computer science, software documentation is the procedure of writing, designing, and documenting an application. In software engineering, this refers to the formal specification of a software product or component.

Software documentation should serve as an instructional manual for users and developers alike. It also refers to the textual, visual, or audio instructions accompanying computer software. It also enables the end-user or developer to understand and use a system software or application software. Generally, software documentation provides instructions on how to utilize a program or service.

Software Documentation 101

When it comes to software documentation, it can be said that the best practices exist along with a range of different factors like the following:

• Technical and non-technical parts of the documentation
• Best practices apply to specific programming languages
• Based on the organization’s experience working with a specific technology

A formalized process may be considered an effective way of dealing with these factors. Therefore, here are some of the best practices you can adapt for software documentation:

1. Involve A Team Of Subject Matter Expert

First, the best practices for software documentation usually involve a team of subject matter experts interacting with a formal writing process. You might call this the ‘bug fight.’  In this case, the system administrators have defined a list of the most critical defects they want to be fixed.

One example of a formal documentation process can be a technical book. In many cases, the technical content is written by the authors themselves or by people who have a very good understanding of the subject matter rather than by a committee of some kind.

A technical book might have chapter-by-chapter illustrations, side tables, diagrams, and charts. Such a book would be best documented in a format that’s consistent with the rest of the book (in terms of formatting, graphics, etc.) rather than being set up as a series of single-page screenshots. The technical writer can use online fax to secure the software documentation and send it to the team working on it.

2. Follow A Process Outline In A Master Document

The documentation has to follow a process that’s been outlined in a master document, which is formally accepted as the final product of a group of subject matter experts working together in a coordinated fashion. The document must contain specifications and descriptions of the product’s essential features as well as a list of all the product’s critical defects.

It doesn’t need to be put together by a committee as it can be done by the actual technical writer. Such a writer has much more expertise in producing high-quality technical content and is better positioned to establish appropriate guidelines for content management.

3. Formalize The Software Documentation

There are two significant advantages to formalize documentation. First, it prevents errors from being committed during software development. Second, it makes it easier for people to work together in improving the software. Given both of these advantages, formalizing software development processes helps reduce the likelihood of problems being left behind when the software is released.

In short, having an official document detailing every aspect of a software’s design and implementation helps ensure the software will meet its intended users’ needs and requirements. Such documents also make it easier for software developers and other people to come together to deal with technical issues as they arise.

4. Stick To The Guidelines

In terms of technical content development, it’s best to stick to guidelines rather than dictate everything from scratch. As long as there’s some level of common ground existing between the parties involved, the resulting documentation will be likely acceptable.

There are a few approaches that can be taken in terms of documentation quality and technical content development. One approach is the search for common ground or a ‘base’ document, and it can be modified to meet the unique requirements of each case. This approach has the advantage of making the documentation more generic and more reusable. Also, it helps ensure a higher degree of uniformity in the final product as the same technical content will generally be present regardless of the audience.

Conclusion

The importance of knowing the best practices in writing software documentation doesn’t only apply to developers and testers but also users themselves. When using a piece of software, a customer should understand all of the information that’s present in the software documentation and have confidence in the functioning of the application.

For this reason, it’s crucial for software developers, engineers, and subject matter experts to come up with clear and concise pieces of information so users can understand the purpose of their software and why it’s created in the first place.

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Software testing suites and end-to-end testing are critical in software building. These tests make sure that your software runs smoothly by finding problems ahead of time. To do this, testing tools mimic the way a potential user will use the software.

And Python is a fantastic programming language to build such testing tools. Python is one of the most popular programming languages out there, and for a good reason.

Python, an open-source language released in 1991, is both a simple and powerful language. Its simplicity makes it easy to learn and read, something that’s helpful for beginners. But just because it values simplicity and readability doesn’t mean it can’t scale.

As an object-oriented programming language, Python is also robust, and you’ll find it exceptional for building an E2E software testing tool.

What Is E2E Testing?

Image Source

Even though end-to-end testing can get complex, in concept, it is straightforward. In simple terms, it is a type of software that tests other software. E2E testing runs through a program (from the beginning to the end) to ensure that the code is running properly.

In software development, end-to-end testing is a crucial step. Without it, you cannot be sure that the software will work under real-life circumstances. This is especially true as software becomes more and more complex.

Modern software is elaborate and has layers and layers of components. Networks, user interfaces, third-party integrations, and other subsystems have to work in harmony. Any one of these blocks can fail, resulting in an unstable program.

But even if specific blocks of code work in isolation, there is no guarantee that the entire application will work. Because with complexity comes unexpected bugs. So E2E testing explores the entire program as a whole, from start to finish, to find bugs ahead of release.

Automated Testing

This testing can be run both manually and automatically. If manual, someone simply uses the program and finds problems along the way. But this is a time-consuming and laborious process.

Automatic testing, however, is significantly more efficient. While expensive and challenging for a smaller company to implement, it is a critical step for large software companies. Automated testing repeats predefined actions over and over to ensure that the software’s components—the network, the server, the hardware, the UI, etc.—are all compatible.

And as software is updated, so too must the E2E testing tools working alongside it. Even though it is time-consuming, keeping your E2E testing up to date means that it won’t miss bugs.

What is Python?

Many programming languages, such as C++, are not all that approachable. The syntax and structure are specific and complex, making it strenuous to learn. But Python is a minimalist programming language, and it’s fantastic for beginners.

Python is a backend programming language that is simple and approachable—the syntax is similar to English. It is also a high-level language, which means that you don’t have to worry about low-level details such as memory management.

And despite Python’s straightforward and readable code, it is also powerful and scalable. Python is particularly exceptional with automated tasks, a feature you want in software testing.

Dutch programmer Guido van Rossum began working on Python in the late 1980s and released it in 1991. Since the original release, it has undergone many updates and acquired lots of new features. But it has held onto its core approach of simplicity and approachability.

One of the core philosophies of Python is that it should be easy and fun to use. In fact, the name Python is said to be a reference to the British comedy Monty Python.

Why Use Python?

Despite its simplicity, clarity, and ease of use, Python is also powerful. The language is optimized for object-oriented programming, but it is also functional. This means that a programmer can decide whether functions or classes will work better.

And Python also has a deep library of packages for testing. These are pre-made and customizable automation scripts that make it pain-free to build your software testing tool.

If you are a beginner, you can also count on a large and welcoming community worldwide. Aside from the well-maintained and friendly community, Python tutorials are widely accessible across the internet. The variety of these tutorials is endless; everything from writing your own Monte Carlo simulation to building web extraction tools in Python.

Why Testing Tools Fail

Even though E2E testing is supposed to catch bugs, a test suite in software testing is clunky and can too easily fail. When the testing software doesn’t evolve with the application, it will miss more and more bugs.

This is because as an application is updated, users will take different pathways through it. And when the testing suite doesn’t account for this, bugs will slip through.

Building an E2E Software Testing Tool

Python is great because you can build a simple testing tool with just a few steps. And with Python, a straightforward tool can always evolve with you. More complexity can be added on top of the simple foundation.

One way of testing an application is to do it manually, but if you’re building a tool, then you want to automate the testing process. In Python, automation modules can be called that allow for exploratory testing.

And Python uses duck typing, which means you don’t have to worry about the class of an object before using it. This is especially useful for automation, where you don’t have to be fussy about classes/types.

Integration and Unit Testing

An integration test takes a particular input and makes sure the output is correct. It is a pathway through the program that involves multiple components that all have to work properly.

The problem with integration testing is that if you get a test.fail situation, it is hard to pin down the issue. Depending on how many parts there are to your program—classes, functions, and modules—any one of them could be the problem.

Integration testing is efficient, but diagnosing failures can be a headache.

Unit testing, on the other hand, zooms in on a specific component. It takes more time, but when there is a bug, it is obvious which component has failed.

Conclusion

If you want your application to run smoothly, end-to-end testing tools are critical. And Python is simple and easy to learn.

And with its rich library of automation scripts, Python is a great choice for building your software testing tool.

Author Bio:

Erik is the MIT-educated COO and Co-Founder of ProdPerfect. He loves unleashing the potential of the great folks in the world and loves helping make decisions with facts. A couple years ago he co-founded ProdPerfect, where he helps his team grow personally and improve their ability to help people solve QA problems. He also helps customers use actual live data–instead of educated guesses–when deciding what tests to write and maintain. In his spare time he podcasts and writes books about making fact-based decisions in business and politics.

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In this article, we will study about arguments and parameters used in the programs at the time of function call.

Sometimes, along with function names, some variables or values are also used and passed to them which help in the execution of a program. These variables which provide extra information about the function are called arguments. The arguments used in one function cannot be used in other functions as they are specific to a particular function and are used only in that specific function. These arguments are passed to the functions at the time of the function call. We can add many arguments to the function and make it more informative.

While Parameter is a type of identifier which is used to identify the type of values passed to a function. In other words, they define the data type of an argument and assign it a general variable that is used while defining a function. They do not contain specific values and are used while writing functions in larger programs to divide them into more readable blocks of code. We can pass several parameters to a function and each parameter is separated by a comma.

Although the terms parameter and arguments are used interchangeably, they differ slightly in their definition and functions. The values passed to the unction at the time of function calling are known as arguments and the values passed at the time of defining function are called parameters. This method of passing values is also known as “Pass by value”.

Let us understand the difference between argument and parameter with the help of a program.

int add (int a, int b)                   // Line 1 
{ 
    int sum ; 
    sum = a + b ; 
    return sum ; 
} 
int main() 
{ 
    int ans; 
    ans = addition (5 , 3) ;             //Line 10 
    cout << " The sum is " << and ; 
}

The above C++ program is used to find the sum of two integers – a and b. It can be observed that, at Line 10, the values passed to the function addition, i.e, 5 and 3 are arguments and at Line 1, the values passed to the function, i.e, ‘a’ and ‘b’ are called parameters. We conclude that the actual values are called arguments and their prototype are called parameters and these have found extensive use in providing information about the programs.

Arguments vs Parameters

Argument	Parameter
It is passed to the function at the time of the function call.	It is passed to the function at the time of specifying function definition.
These are the actual values used to execute the function.	These are variables used in place of actual values to generalize the function.
Also called actual parameters.	Also called formal parameters.

So, this is all about parameters and arguments in programming. Comment down below if you have any queries.

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In this article, we will take a look at one of the most dynamic varieties of computers, the hybrid computers.

Hybrid computers are those computers that have the functionalities of both analog and digital computers. Analog computers are those which work on continuous numerical data & logical operations while digital computers are those which work on both numerical & non-numerical data and deal with complex mathematical calculations. A hybrid computer uses both the qualities of analog as well as digital computers and hence increases accuracy and speeds up the processing.

The analog computers are very fast in performing complex mathematical calculations but are not accurate while processing the information. Digital computers take care of the precision of the values but are really slow while performing the calculations. The qualities of both these computers were combined in a single computer, known as a hybrid computer, to achieve the goal of fast and accurate processing at the same time.

The first hybrid computer was designed in 1961, by Packard Bell, and it was named HYCOMP 250.

Types

1. Large Electronic Hybrid Computers: These computers are capable of solving complex mathematical equations.

2. General Purpose Hybrid Computers: These computers help to solve different issues along with performing many tasks simultaneously.

3. Special-Purpose Hybrid Computers: These computers are used to solve specific types of problems.

Advantages

1. Provides functionalities of both analog and digital computers.

2. Returns accurate results at a fast pace.

3. Helps to solve complex mathematical equations efficiently.

Real-life Applications

1. Used in different medical equipments like CT scan, Ultrasound machine, Electrocardiogram, and Echocardiogram.

2. Used in hospitals – in ICUs.

3. Used to measure heartbeats.

4. Used at petrol pumps.

5. Scientific calculations.

6. In cell phones to convert signals.

This is all about hybrid computers. These computers have found great use in large organizations for performing complex calculations and producing accurate data.

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All parents know that the jobs of tomorrow will rely on STEM skills and programming knowledge and that it’s necessary to get ready for this today. But if you don’t have these skills yourself, how can someone recognize the best coding instructors from the rest?

It’s crucial to find an online coding camp for kids today that imparts programming fundamentals. Let’s check out more about how they work and what you can expect to find.

Goals Like Video Games

There’s hardly anything kids love more than video games, and framing lessons around something they love so much is a perfect motivator for learning. The best coding programs for children teach them how to build their own video games that they can play afterward and show their friends.

In a way, building a video game can feel like playing a video game. Kids will have so much fun doing it that they won’t even realize they’re learning.

Professional Coding Languages

Some courses teach novices programs like Scratch, a drag-and-drop language designed to give beginners a sense of how coding works. The problem is, nobody uses these languages in the classroom or in the workplace.

Kids as young as seven can and should learn coding languages that professionals use to build programs, apps and games used by millions of people. The best coding programs teach:

• Python
• Java
• C#
• C++
• Unity

Get your kid learning the languages that they’ll need in the field right from the start. By absorbing such language early on, they’ll absorb all the mental habits needed to become fluent in coding languages.

Small Classrooms

In-person classrooms are best when there is a low student-teacher ratio, and this doesn’t change when lessons move online. Ideally, there should be four students per teacher, so your child can get all the attention they’ll need.

It’s difficult for anybody to absorb new topics, especially if they’re complex. Even young kids can learn to code, but they need ample attention from their instructors.

Young, Fun, Qualified Instructors

Finally, it’s crucial to find a program that hires teachers who are experienced coders young enough to have also grown up playing video games themselves. When students learn from a passionate teacher, not only will they retain more of the material, but they’ll become more enthusiastic and energized about coding.

Undergrad students with Computer Engineering or Computer Science backgrounds make the perfect instructors, especially if they’ve taught the subject for a while. The best programs select teachers personally. It’s better for your child to have a younger teacher with a lot of energy and knowledge than the world’s most sophisticated programmer who can’t relate to children.

No parent wants to prepare their kid for the workforce at the expense of undermining their sense of childhood innocence and play. By enrolling them in coding lessons with the right focus, structure, and teaching environment, children will develop the coding fundamentals to be ready for the jobs of tomorrow and will have a great time learning them.

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In this article, we will study two popular terms in the programming language Expression vs Statement and take a look at the differences between the two.

In the programming world, an Expression is a function or a combination of characters, variables, and operators combined together to produce a certain value. These expressions are interpreted by the programming language and converted to produce a value through the process of evaluation. The value obtained is of a primitive type which includes integer, float, boolean, string, or other data types.

For example:

value = a + b/5

Types of Expressions

1. Integral Expressions: As the name suggests, these kinds of expressions return an integer value. Even if a floating value is used in the expression, it is converted into an integer explicitly by the user.

For example:

value = (int)5.0 – b*a

2. Floating Expressions: These kinds of expressions return a floating value. Even if an integral value is used in the expression, it is converted into a floating one explicitly by the user.

For example:

value = (float)5 – b*a

3. Constant Expressions: Constant expressions consist of only constant values which do not change.

For example:

3/6 + 8*3

4. Logical Expressions: These expressions use logical operators (&& and || ) to compute the value of two or more arithmetic expressions.

For example:

a && b || a==b

5. Relational Expressions: These types of expressions return boolean values. Such expressions use relational operators ( <, >, ==, =<, >= ) to compare arithmetic values on either sides of an expression and return a boolean value.

For example:

a + b >= 6

6. Pointer Expressions: Pointers are values that are used to store addresses. Pointer expressions return address values using pointer notations.

For example:

&a , pointer++

7. Bitwise Expressions: These expressions use bitwise operators (<< and >>) to return a value by shifting the bits to the left or right position.

For example:

b << 7 (Shifts left by 7 bits)

These expressions are a part of a broader unit called ‘Statements’. Statements are the combination of characters or words which are used to print the output on the screen. The expressions return a value and these values are printed with the help of statements.

Types of Statements

1. Assignment Statements: These statements are used to assign values to variables.

For example:

value = 1000

2. Increment/Decrement Statements: These statements are used to increment and decrement the value of a variable respectively.

For example:

value++

3. Method call/ Print Statements: These statements are used to call the methods and print them using the print statements.

For example:

System.out.println(value)                     // Statement to print output in Java Language

4. Object Creation Statements: These statements are used to initialize variables or creating objects.

For example:

Integer object = new Integer()                // Statement to create object in Java Language

5. Declaration Statements: These statements are used to declare variables in our programs.

For example:

float value = 785.65

Expression vs Statement

Expression	Statement
Expression is a function or a combination of characters, variables, and operators combined together to produce a certain value.	The values returned by expressions are printed using statements.
There are 7 types of expressions.	There are 5 types of statements.
It uses arithmetic operators and variables to perform its function.	It uses simple English statements to perform its function.

Expressions and statements are an important part of any program and most of the codes mainly use them to produce the results. That is why they are much popular among coding languages.

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